Humans play a great role in the natural environment in which they find themselves. Today, however, human pressure on natural environment is greater than before in terms of magnitude and efficiency in disrupting nature and natural landscapes.
The ways by which human have greatly impacted their activities both positively and negatively will be learnt in this article.
The Natural Environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species.
The ecological part of the natural environment take care of the natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
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In aspect of natural resources and physical phenomena of the natural environment, these lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.
Earth as the Natural Environment
The study of the earth as a natural environment is known as Earth science or Geosciences.
Earth science generally recognizes four spheres namely, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere as correspondent to rocks, water, air, and life.
Some scientists include, as part of the spheres of the Earth, the cryosphere (corresponding to ice) as a distinct portion of the hydrosphere, as well as the pedosphere (corresponding to soil) as an active and intermixed sphere.
Figure: The Earth’s layered structure: (1) inner core; (2) outer core; (3) lower mantle; (4) upper mantle; (5) lithosphere; (6) crust